Currently cooking from Cook This Now by Melissa Clark

There’s an allure about bean dishes – filling! thrifty! nutritious! – that makes me feel kind of ashamed that I don’t eat more beans, especially homemade ones (in other words, opening a can is cheating somehow). There’s just something about the whole soaking ahead of time that I can never remember to do. Fortunately, Clark admits that she has the same problem and promises that you don’t really need to presoak your beans; they’ll just take longer to cook. So with that in mind, when I started making this stew with unsoaked beans, I was prepared to wait several extra hours while the beans softened. Fortunately, I used small cannellini beans, and they were done in under two hours. But after one bite of this bean stew, I would have happily waited another two hours for it. It was everything a bean stew ought to be. Tender, flavorful beans in a rich, meaty sauce. I have to admit that I did make a few small changes, but even so, I feel pretty safe saying this is my favorite recipe out of this book so far.

With the exception of the farro, this is a “throw everything in the pot and let it cook” dish. Dried white beans, olive oil (a lot of it), garlic, celery, onion, clove, rosemary, thyme, bay leaf and a Parmesan rind thrown into a pot, covered with water and simmered until the beans are tender. Once the beans get close to being done, you boil up a pot of farro, pasta style, until the grain is tender. When you are ready to serve the dish, half of the beans are roughly pureed, along with more garlic, and stirred back into the pot to thicken the stew. The stew is then served over the farro with some more olive oil and lemon juice drizzled on.

I think there are a lot of things that contribute to the most excellent flavor of this dish. First, don’t skimp on the olive oil. Second, please do use a Parmesan rind if you can. And third, throw something piggy in with the beans. I used some chopped up ham. A ham hock, bacon, even sausage will add a nice meaty flavor. As to the changes I made, first, I used dried herbs instead of fresh (I’m pretty sure there are no fresh herbs in Northern Idaho right now, and if there are, they cost an arm and a leg), I added chopped up Swiss chard to the beans at the end, I didn’t throw away the onion after cooking, and I used bulgur instead of farro.

The only change I’d make next time is to forget the grain. This stew is so hearty and filling that I don’t think it needs the grain and that’s just an extra pot to wash.

Currently cooking out of Slow Cooker Revolution by America’s Test Kitchen

‘Tis maybe the season for good cheer, but it’s also the season for stews, braises and the slow cooker! Since there are probably a hundred recipes in this book that I haven’t tried yet, expect to see more dishes from it in the coming months.

Conversely, these days I am having a hard time talking myself into making ice cream, even though there are still a few recipes in Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home that I still want to make.

An ice cream-making slave for Christmas? Yes, please.

After the overeating fest that is Thanksgiving time, I haven’t been baking/cooking much. This is about the most complicated thing that has come out of my kitchen for a couple of weeks. Even my sourdough starters are feeling neglected.

This stew starts out by pureeing a can of hominy and chicken broth until smooth. That goes in the slow cooker, along with a bunch of onions that have been softened in the microwave, tomato paste, chili powder, garlic, oregano, diced tomatoes, more hominy, soy sauce and cubes of boneless pork butt. Then, you take carrots, slice them up and wrap them in foil and put the foil packet on top of the stew (this keeps them from getting mushy). The whole thing cooks on high for 5 to 7 hours, or low for 9 to 11 hours. When the pork is tender, you add the carrots and any juices into the stew and stir in lime juice and fresh cilantro.

I skipped that last step, but I wouldn’t recommend it. While the stew is good, very thick and hearty, it needs that little bit of freshness that lime juice and cilantro would give it. I love the flavor of the hominy with the pork, and because you puree part of the hominy, every bite is full of corny flavor. And the carrots give the dish just enough sweetness to offset the heat of the chili powder. Like most stews, the flavor is improving with age. This is a nice alternative to beef stew or chili.

On another subject, I stumbled across this blog earlier this week and fell in love with it. A blog full of sprinkles, pink velvet roulades and 10-pound cakes? What’s not to love?

Currently cooking out of Slow Cooker Revolution by America’s Test Kitchen

This is definitely one of my favorite recipes out of this book. I gladly ate this chili for an entire week; it just kept getting better and better.

The chili starts off by microwaving onions, chili powder, tomato paste, oil, garlic, cumin and oregano. Once the onions have softened, you dump the mixture into the slow cooker and add red kidney beans, tomato puree, chicken broth, tapioca (for thickening the chili), soy sauce, chipotle chilis, a bit of sugar and bay leaves. Finally, beef chuck is cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes and nestled into the liquid. The chili cooks on low for 9 to 11 hours or until the beef is tender.

As I was preparing the chili, I realized that I had accidentally picked up two 15-ounce cans of tomato paste instead of tomato puree. Rather than go back to the store, I decided to use two cans of diced tomatoes that I happened to have. I think this made my chili soupier than it would normally be, but I liked having the chunks of tomato in the chili. Next time I make this dish, I’ll probably keep the diced tomatoes instead of the sauce, but I’ll drain the tomatoes first. The other thing I’d change is to add more kidney beans, probably at least another can. The amount of beans seemed kind of skimpy for the amount of chili this recipe made. Finally, I ended up serving the chili over rice. While this chili isn’t very hot, it does have a bit of kick, and the rice tends to temper that. It also bulks out the chili and makes it more of a meal by itself.

Of course, if you like heat, you can always add more chipotles and skip the rice.

Currently cooking out of Slow Cooker Revolution by America’s Test Kitchen

I am officially declaring this to be the best beef stew I’ve ever made. Best. Beef. Stew. Ever.

Like most of the other recipes I’ve made out of this book, this recipe is a little more complicated than simply throwing your ingredients into the slow cooker and walking away for 8 hours. You could do that, but with just a little more work, you’ll get a whole lot more flavor.

You start out by browning onions, tomato paste, garlic and thyme on the stovetop. Once the onions are softened and lightly browned, a bit of flour is stirred in, followed by chicken broth. This give the stew some body and thickens the liquid up just enough that it clings to the meat and veggies. That mixture goes into the slow cooker followed by soy sauce, beef broth, bay leaves, chunks of beef chuck roast and salt and pepper. Then, you take carrots and potatoes, toss them with oil, salt and pepper and wrap them up in tinfoil. That tinfoil packet is placed on top of the other things in the slow cooker, and the whole shebang is cooked until the beef is tender. At the end of the cooking, the now perfectly tender steamed carrots and potatoes are removed from the tinfoil packet and stirred into the stew along with some frozen peas.

Holy crap, you should have smelled my house while this was cooking.

The little Cooks Illustrated tips, like precooking the onions, adding soy sauce and steaming the veggies separately, are genius. You get a stew that is deeply flavored with meat so tender it falls apart with the littlest prodding of a fork. The vegetables, instead of being mushy and bland, are tender without being overcooked (this is especially important when you are reheating the stew for subsequent meals).

Like I said. Best. Beef. Stew. Ever.

For about a week, we were buried under this stew. We ate it for lunches and dinners. Over rice and in burritos. And I still threw a bunch of it away.

Note to self: Consider halving these stew/soup recipes.

This is a hearty, porky bean stew. It is also very dark and murky, so it doesn’t take pictures well. It is very good and filling. And did I mention that it makes a ton? The recipe says it serves 6-8 people. I’m thinking they served amazon warriors, because we got more like 14-16 servings out of it.

The stew starts by sauteing some bacon until crispy. Then a ton of onions, tomato paste, garlic, chili powder, cumin and coriander are added to the pan and cooked until the onions have softened. This goes into the slow cooker, along with water, chicken broth, dried black beans, chunks of kielbasa sausage, bay leaves and boneless pork butt that has been cut into chunks. The whole thing cooks for 9 to 11 hours on low until the beans are tender and the pork is falling apart.

If I make this again, I’ll make a few changes. First, I’ll halve the recipe. Secondly, I won’t use turkey kielbasa. In fact, I’ll probably leave the sausage out all together (although Bryan thinks the stew would be good with a very spicy sausage). I didn’t like the texture of the turkey kielbasa after hours of cooking. All the flavor seemed to have leached out of it.

The pork, on the other hand, pretty much just fell apart into strands. It was tender and flavorful and went really well with the spices and black beans. I really liked the stew (with the exception of the sausage), I just don’t want to see any of it for a couple of months.

So here’s the last (for now) recipe out of this cookbook. Basically, Bittman has you make the tomato bulgur soup recipe and add vegetable. And some beans. And ground meat, if you want.

I pretty much used this recipe to clean out my fridge of any vegetables that were hanging around. I ended up adding celery, carrots, kale, cauliflower and corn. I also added some ground turkey and a few tablespoons of green chilis that were leftover from an earlier recipe. As Bryan put it, “This ain’t chili. It’s tomato stew.”

This recipe also makes a ton of soup/stew/chili. Fortunately, it ages well and is great for reheating.

Currently cooking out of The Food Matters Cookbook by Mark Bittman

I have to apologize to all tomato soups, everywhere. See, for years, I hated tomato soups without actually eating tomato soups. I just assumed that I didn’t like them (maybe, in a former life, I was mugged by a tomato).

So why pick a tomato soup recipe to test? It looked easy, and I’m trying to try new things in my cooking. Go me!

Anyway, seldom has so few ingredients yielded such a wonderful dish. Sauteed onions, celery and garlic mixed with two cans of diced tomatoes, some chicken stock and bulgur. Everything simmered until the tomatoes start to fall apart and the grain is tender.

Me + tomato soup = true love. Well, at least extreme like.

Did I mention that she grew up down south?

A few weeks ago, Missy gave me some soup to try. It was thick with vegetables and sweet, almost like there was sugar in it. And there was just enough meat in it to satisfy Bryan who thinks a meal without meat is not complete. Missy graciously agreed to send me the recipe, and it has quickly become one of my favorite soups.

I didn’t make too many changes to the original recipe; mostly I just increased the amount of vegetables in it. I also found that a handful of pearl barley or small pasta shapes isn’t a bad thing at all. Recipe after the jump.

Vegetable Beef Soup
Any inexpensive cut of beef will do here, just as long as it isn’t too fatty. I tend to use thin top round steaks. I also don’t usually measure the amount of vegetables I use. If I think it needs more carrots, I add one or two more. If I’m feeling particularly oniony, I might add more onion. Likewise, I like my soups less, uh, soupy. The amount of liquid below gives me a hearty soup with a little broth, especially if you add barley. If you want more liquid, add more beef broth or water. This soup is all about playing with your food.

1 lb beef cut into small cubes
1 medium onion, chopped
1 14-oz can of diced tomatoes, undrained
3 cups beef broth
3 beef bouillon cubes
4 medium potatoes, cut into small cubes. I use Yukon Gold potatoes and I don’t bother peeling them.
3 celery ribs, chopped
4 carrots, chopped
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup frozen corn
1/2 tsp basil
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp thyme
salt and pepper to taste

In a large stockpot, brown the beef in a couple of teaspoons of vegetable oil. Once the beef is browned, add the onions and cook until they are soft.

Add the rest of the ingredients, except the peas and corn, to the pot. If you are using barley, add it now. Bring the soup to a boil, then cover and simmer until potatoes (and barley) are tender. If you are adding pasta to the soup, stir it in when the potatoes are almost done.

Add the peas and corn and simmer until warmed through. Adjust seasonings and serve.

Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve made a number of recipes out of this book. I’ve been too lazy to hold up dinner to take pictures, so I’ve been reluctant to talk about those dishes. Instead, I thought I’d do a wrap-up post, starting with the one dish I did manage to take a picture of:

Mediterranean Tuna Melts!
Normally, I don’t like tuna. All that fishy taste and fishy-smelling breath and gloopy mayo. But I liked these sandwiches. Water-packed tuna is mixed with mayo, lemon juice, red onion and artichoke hearts and piled onto toasted bread. The tuna mixture is topped with tomatoes and slices of provolone cheese and then broiled until the cheese is bubbly and melty. Melty cheese makes everything taste better.

Polenta with Mushroom Sauce
Polenta is not a fixture in our kitchen. I tried it, once, and found it to be bland in the extreme. But in this dish, browned and served with a creamy mushroom sauce, well, the polenta was still pretty bland. Fortunately, the mushroom sauce was full of flavor thanks to sherry, onions, rosemary and garlic. The recipe takes tubes of prepared polenta, slices them into rounds and cooks the rounds in a skillet until a brown crust forms. I liked the textural difference between the crusty outside of the polenta and the creamy insides. This isn’t my favorite dish by far, but it was warm and filling.

Sausage and Tortellini Soup with Spinach
This broth-based pasta soup was Bryan’s pick for Sunday supper several weeks ago, and he did a great job with this recipe. It was a nice change of pace for me to come home to find supper on the table. The soup starts out by browning sausage (we used hot Italian sausage), onions and garlic. Chicken broth and fresh cheese tortellinis are added to the pot and simmered until the pasta is tender. Right before serving, baby spinach is stirred in and cooked just until wilted. This, along with some homemade bread, made a nice, light supper.

Skillet Chicken Tetrazzini
This was another of Bryan’s Sunday suppers. Using a store-bought rotisserie chicken, Bryan had this casserole-type dish on the table in less than an hour (and most of that time was spent chopping mushrooms and onions and shredding chicken meat). The dish starts off by cooking onions and mushrooms in butter until browned. Egg noodles are then cooked in the same skillet in a mixture of chicken broth and half-and-half until tender. Finally, the chicken, lemon juice, frozen peas and a bit of thyme are added to the skillet, and the whole dish simmers until the chicken and peas are warmed through. Unlike traditional tetrazzinis that use a cheese sauce, this casserole was right, but light. And it was done on the stovetop with one dish. We happily ate leftovers for several days.

Currently cooking from The Best Simple Recipes from America’s Test Kitchen

“This is the best cookbook you’ve ever bought.”

That’s what Bryan said as he ladled this soup into bowls. Not only did he pick this recipe for supper, he made it! A book full of good food, and it’s teaching my guy to cook. This is the best cookbook ever.

At first I was apprehensive. Chicken soup is never been one of my favorites, but I was pleasantly surprised. The soup was thick and creamy, but not overwhelmingly lemony. It kept well and made really good leftovers. Both Bryan and I noticed, however, that the lemon flavor seemed to decrease over time.

The soup starts out by cooking two chicken breasts until browned. Those are set aside and an onion is softened in the pan. Chicken stock, carrots, rice, thyme and the chicken breasts are added to the pot and simmered until the chicken is cooked through. The chicken breasts are set aside again, while the soup continues to simmer until the rice and carrots are tender. Once the vegetables are done, the chicken is cut into chunks and stirred back into the soup. To get the lemon flavor, egg yolks and fresh lemon juice are whisked together and then whisked into the soup.